Hold Fast: Essay

How Michael Changed throughout the Book

      Hold Fast is a very interesting book. The author of this book is Kevin Major. Author shows that Michael has changed many times throughout the book.

      In the beginning of the book, Michael was weak because of the lost of his parents, but later, he acts strong to encourage his brother, Brent. Michael was showed weak as he bawled two times, at the funeral (p9), and in front of Aunt Flo (p17). However, after a conversation with Brent (p18~21), he realizes he is Brent’s only person to rely on. Therefore, Michael decides to stay strong to set an example for Brent and talk Brent out of their shadow of lost of their parents (p23, p30).

      Michael didn’t like Curtis at first because he thinks they didn’t come along well, but later on, they become good friends. When Michael first arrives at Curtis’ house, Michael thought Curtis is “shy or mad” (p53). Later on in the book, Michael is no longer a stranger to Curtis, because Curtis realizes Michael is good in Science and Math (p55) and is not dumb. Further throughout the book, Michael and Curtis even run away together which proves that they’ve relied on each other.

      Michael didn’t “find it hard to make friends”, because he thought “it’s just a matter of starting a conversation and everybody would be friendly” (p68), but now in his school in St. Albert, he realizes it’s totally different. In St. Albert, when he tries to talk to the people (who are rude), they think he’s a fool, and make fun of him (p68). Then he meets “this fellow who seemed to be a bit more civilized” (p69), and learns that not everyone is friendly or can be friends with.

      Michael never hung out with any girl, but now, he finds himself starting to fall in love with a girl named Brenda. In Marten, Michael was always a guy who “sticks in the corner” or “goes outside for a smoke” and never had “the nerve to ask a girl, even when they’re all dying to be asked” (p88). However, in St. Albert, he has “the first girl [he] ever really had the hots on” (p86~87), and has the courage to hang out and talk about nearly anything with her alone (p95~98).

      Michael felt angry for his family living with Ted at first, and later on, he found out how Ted was really like, and is very angry with Ted himself. Michael was angry that Ted yells at Marie until she cries and at his wife for trying to calm him down (p61~62). Michael also heard from Curtis that Ted once “beat [Curtis] with a leather belt when [he] was small till it left black and blue marks” (p79). Michael thinks Ted is a cruel and bossy old man that just wants every family member to do as he tells. There were three times he was mad with Ted himself, no longer sympathetic for his family. After when Ted didn’t allow Michael to go to Simon Bay for the weekends (p91~94), when Ted yelled at him for coming home late (p99~101), and lastly when Ted pinned him against the wall after he refused to apologize to Kenton’s family (p124~129), he hated Ted even more.

Michael learns to not run away from the truth. After Michael’s parents died in the beginning of the book, he told himself to run away (p10) because he didn’t want to face the fact that his parents were dead. However, at the end at his Grandpa’s funeral, he just “sat up in the front seat of the church” and “never moved once from [his] spot” (p194). That proves Michael was no longer afraid of the truth even though he knew clearly that the cause of his Grandpa’s death was because of him.

      As a conclusion, Michael changed many times from evil to righteous or from righteous to evil many times throughout the book. We should learn to be like him on the positive sides, to always be changing to adopt our environment and fit into the people around us.